Interesting Office Statistics On Productivity and Organization

Clean office

I’ve been doing some reading on office productivity and came across these interesting facts that I’d like to share with you.

Interruptions

The average manager is interrupted every 8 minutes, 50 percent are interrupted 8 or 9 times an hour, 22 percent 10 to 11 times, 11 percent 6 to 7 times, 5 percent 1 to 3 times, and 2 percent more than 12 times. Interruptions are sometimes necessary and the higher your position in the company the more you may be needed but try to limit your interruptions to be as productive as possible during the day. It’s OK to close the door to concentrate now and again.

File it away

Roughly 25% of workers save things in piles instead of files. When that piece of paper comes in or is created why not handle it now? Putting it in a pile adds an extra step when you do file it away and if it is needed you spend wasted time going through your pile of paper looking for it.

Alphabetized organizing filing system, close-up. Shot in studio with Phase One.

Almost one-third of office workers that were surveyed indicated that they were upset with the condition of a co-worker’s desk leading to stress in the workplace.

The cost of retrieving it

Even worse, 80% of what we file away never gets looked at again. So before you file something away take a real hard look at it to determine if it really is useful, or are you wasting your time? To reinforce the above statement – it costs on average $120 to track down a misplaced document or $250 to recreate it so ensure that your filing system is set up for easy retrieval and filing away. The average employee will spend 400 hours per year searching for documents. That is just over a month out of the year!

Let’s put that into dollars

Disorganization costs businesses valuable time and money. According to a recent study, the average manager wastes six weeks annually searching for important documents
lost in clutter according to a recent Esselte study published in The Wall Street Journal. In fact, for a manager who earns $60,000, that time lost costs the company a staggering $6,290.

Clean vs. messy desk

Recent studies indicate that people who maintain a messy desk are more creative. However, most office managers acknowledge that a messy desk has a reflection on their company when visitors come through and that messy desks reduce productivity.

Desk - organized

Einstein once said, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” and who am I to argue with Einstein but our desks aren’t really empty, are they?

I hope you have enjoyed these interesting office stats and if you need assistance with de-cluttering your office or improving your productivity give us a call.